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What's in There? The New Health Reform Law and Private Insurance

Friday, April 30, 2010

As part of an ongoing series to explore the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, this briefing dealt with how the new health reform law affects access to private coverage. A range of specific provisions were covered, including the new federal high-risk pools, tax credits for small businesses, health insurance exchanges, the individual mandate, and employer obligations. The law’s provisions governing private health insurance mark a dramatic change from past practice, and much attention has been paid by opposing sides to the potential implementation and legal issues.

To provide illumination on these topics and others, our distinguished panel explored such questions as: What provisions in the new law pertain to private insurance? How will the new law affect individuals, families, large and small businesses? What particular challenges need to be overcome by states and the federal government to implement these provisions?

Sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the briefing featured: Chris Koller, health insurance commissioner of Rhode Island; Scott Keefer of the AHIP Center for Policy and Research; and Gary Claxton of Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Ed Howard of the Alliance and Diane Rowland of the Kaiser Family Foundation co-moderated.

Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, co-moderated the April 30 briefing on health reform and private coverage, cosponsored by the foundation. Click on the arrow above, then click "Join Webcast" to see the full webcast, with synchronized PowerPoint slides.

Gary Claxton, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, highlighted provisions of the health reform law affecting private health coverage this year and in 2014 at the April 30 briefing cosponsored by the foundation. Click on the arrow above, then click "Join Webcast" to see the full webcast with synchronized PowerPoint slides.

Christopher Koller, health insurance commissioner of Rhode Island, offered a checklist for states implementing health reform at the April 30 briefing cosponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Click on the arrow above, then click "Join Webcast" to see the full webcast with synchronized PowerPoint slides.

Scott Keefer of America's Health Insurance Plans described near-term and long-term effects of health reform on the private insurance market at the April 30 briefing cosponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Click on the arrow above, then click "Join Webcast" to see the full webcast with synchronized PowerPoint slides.

Webcast: The Emerging Biosimilars Market

Open Enrollment Preview: Checking the Vitals of the Marketplaces

The Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces rely on robust competition to control costs and to provide consumer choice. But the decisions of several large insurers to scale back their 2017 marketplace participation, and the failure of many health insurance co-ops will leave marketplace shoppers in many states with fewer choices than they had in 2016. Furthermore, those insurers remaining in the exchanges have often found their marketplace customers to be less healthy than they projected, and they are raising premiums in response. Our briefing focuses on these trends, what they mean for the long-term viability of the marketplaces, and what public policy steps can be taken to bring more healthy people into the risk pool and to encourage insurer participation in the individual market.